This section provides background information which is not necessarily prior art to the inventive concepts associated with the present disclosure.
Roulette is a well-known game of chance enjoyed in casinos throughout the world. The basic equipment for a roulette wheel includes the wheel itself, a ball and a table with a gaming surface having wagering areas for placing bets on the outcome of a round of play. On an American roulette wheel there are 38 pockets each displaying a possible winning number in a round of play, the numbers are 1-36, 0 and 00. Each of the pockets for the numbers 1-36 has a color of either black or red, the 0 and 00 pockets are green. By way of contrast the French wheel used in most of Europe has 37 pockets each displaying a possible winning number in a round of play, the numbers are 1-36 and 0. The wagering areas in a typical American roulette wheel version include a layout with boxes for the numbers 1-36 arranged in three columns with 12 rows and at the end nearest the dealer above the numbers 1, 2 and 3 are boxes for 0 and 00. Each box for numbers 1-36 is surrounded by a border of black or red and the boxes for 0 and 00 have a green background, these 38 boxes represent the “inside bets” where you can bet on: a single number which pays 35 to 1; a split bet on two numbers which pays at 17 to 1; a row bet for three numbers which pays at 11 to 1; a corner bet for 4 numbers which pays at 8 to 1; a five number bet on the numbers 0, 00, 1, 2 and 3 which pays at 6 to 1; or a line bet on 6 numbers which pays at 5 to 1. Then outside the numbered boxes are a series of boxes with labels for other possible bets including: even which pays at 1 to 1; odd which pays at 1 to 1; red which pays at 1 to 1; black which pays at 1 to 1; 1 to 18 or low which pays at 1 to 1; 19 to 36 or high which pays at 1 to 1; dozens for 1-12 or 13-24 or 25-36 all of which pay at 2 to 1; one of the three columns all of which pay at 2 to 1. The payers place their wagers and the dealer then spins the wheel in one direction and tosses the ball onto a track in the wheel above the pockets in the opposite direction. When the ball is about ready to drop out of the track toward the pockets the dealer calls no more bets. The ball eventually comes to rest in one of the pockets and the dealer then collects all losing bets and then pays off all winning bets.
Because the casino edge on every bet is 5.26%, except for the 5 number bet where it is 7.89%, the game of roulette has lost popularity compared to other casino games with better odds for the players such as slot machines, craps, blackjack and poker. In addition, the maximal payout is 35 to 1 which is lower than that available in many other casino games. There have been attempts to introduce other betting options for roulette such as high reward fixed odds side bets or progressive jackpot-type bets, however, none of these have succeeded as of yet. One of the issues with attempts to expand the side betting on the roulette wheel is that there is limited space in a typical roulette wheel set up for the addition of side betting areas. The other issue is that the previous attempts required the side betting areas be pre-printed on the gaming table and thus the betting options could not be changed or altered. Many of the previous side bet concepts were also overly complex and thus required excessive instructions from the dealer to the players. Roulette is already a slow game in terms of the number of rounds per hour compared to other faster games such as slots, video poker, blackjack and craps therefore the side bet game to be successful must not slow the pace of play to any great extent. Many previous side bet concepts involved use of a random number generator to determine side bet winning outcomes and these random number generators are often distrusted by players. Finally, the maximal payout from many of these side bet concepts was 1000 to 1, which is not as high a payout as players desire.
Thus, it is desirable to create a side bet game to associate with a typical roulette wheel. It will be beneficial to create a game which is simple to understand and thus does not slow play at the roulette wheel. It is desirable to create a side bet game that does not dramatically increase the square footage required by the roulette wheel game itself. It is highly desirable to create a side bet game with much bigger payouts than found in typical side bet games and one that does not depend on a random number generator.